CITY council leader Steve Galloway has staked his administration's reputation on its success in making York a safer place.

He has relaunched the drive to clamp down on antisocial behaviour, and given the council's deputy chief executive Laura McGillivray the role of Safe City Champion - with direct responsibility for pushing forward the crackdown.

Since the Liberal Democrats took power in York almost a year ago, Coun Galloway has made dealing with antisocial behaviour one of the council's top priorities.

Now Ms McGillivray will set up a group charged with co-ordinating York's efforts to beat the louts, and will look at the worth of setting up a dedicated antisocial behaviour unit in York.

The new group will also look for long-term solutions to the problem.

Coun Galloway said: "I will be asking all directors to give her full support. If that means resources, that will happen.

"This strategy and York Pride is what I expect this administration to be judged on." Every member of the council's ruling executive has also been instructed to make dealing with antisocial behaviour top of their priority list.

Coun Galloway told yesterday's executive meeting: "Making the deputy chief executive Safe City Champion is a very serious proposal, to ensure someone right at the top of this organisation is charged with co-operating with other partners to reduce the amount of fear caused by this behaviour in York."

Other measures in the latest push will be the publication of an antisocial behaviour strategy document by Safer York Partnership at the end of this month, while a bid has been made for Government funding to set up a system to share information on antisocial behaviour across North Yorkshire.

If that bid is not successful then Safer York will look at setting up a similar scheme for the city alone.

Coun Galloway added: "We will monitor progress on a monthly basis. We will use every opportunity and every power that has been given to us to deal with this."

Updated: 10:44 Wednesday, April 21, 2004